“MY HEART IS IN PAIN” OLDER PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCE OF CONFLICT, DISPLACEMENT, AND DETENTION IN NORTHEAST NIGERIA Amnesty International is a movement of 10 million people which mobilizes the humanity in everyone and campaigns for change so we can all enjoy our human rights. Our vision is of a world where those in power keep their promises, respect international law and are held to account. We are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded mainly by our membership and individual donations. We believe that acting in solidarity and compassion with people everywhere can change our societies for the better. Cover photo: Shakwa, around 90 years old, sits against her shelter in an IDP camp in Borno State, © Amnesty International 2020 Nigeria, October 2020. © The Walking Paradox / Amnesty International. Except where otherwise noted, content in this document is licensed under a Creative Commons (attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives, international 4.0) licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode For more information please visit the permissions page on our website: www.amnesty.org Where material is attributed to a copyright owner other than Amnesty International this material is not subject to the Creative Commons licence. First published in 2020 by Amnesty International Ltd Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street London WC1X 0DW, UK Index: AFR 44/3376/2020 Original language: English amnesty.org CONTENTS MAP 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5 METHODOLOGY 11 1. BACKGROUND 13 1.1 CONFLICT, DISPLACEMENT, AND IMPUNITY 13 1.2 OLDER PEOPLE IN SITUATIONS OF CRISIS 15 2. BOKO HARAM’S CRIMES 20 2.1 MURDER AND TORTURE 21 2.2 MURDER AND ABDUCTION OF CHILDREN 24 2.3 BEATINGS AND DENIAL OF OLDER WOMEN’S LIVELIHOOD 25 2.4 LOOTING, EXTREME FOOD INSECURITY 26 2.5 CHALLENGES OF FLEEING 27 3. NIGERIAN MILITARY CRIMES 32 3.1 ATTACKS ON CIVILIANS, VILLAGE BURNINGS 33 3.2 WIDESPREAD UNLAWFUL DETENTION, TORTURE 35 3.3 CRIMES AGAINST THEIR CHILDREN 44 4. CHALLENGES OF DISPLACEMENT 48 4.1 INVISIBILITY, DISCRIMINATION 50 4.2 ACCESS TO FOOD 53 4.3 ACCESS TO HEALTH SERVICES 56 4.4 ACCESS TO SHELTER AND HOUSING 60 5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 63 “MY HEART IS IN PAIN” OLDER PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCE OF CONFLICT, DISPLACEMENT, AND DETENTION IN NORTHEAST NIGERIA Amnesty International 3 MAP “MY HEART IS IN PAIN” OLDER PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCE OF CONFLICT, DISPLACEMENT, AND DETENTION IN NORTHEAST NIGERIA Amnesty International 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY “The military came around 4 p.m. When we heard the gunshots, we ran to the bush, those who could run. The six [who were killed], it was four older men and two older women. They couldn’t run, and they were killed.” A 60-year-old farmer from a village in Bama local government area (LGA), Borno State, who was able to flee at the outset of the military’s attack; he was among a group that returned to the village that night, after the soldiers left, and buried the bodies.1 “I’m an older woman, no one cares about me. I can’t go there [to the distribution], and they won’t come to me… No one is paying attention to us. No NGO has come and asked about my situation.” A 68-year-old woman, displaced to Dalori 2 Camp in Borno State, who has a spinal condition that makes it difficult to walk; she said Cameroonian soldiers had killed one of her sons and the Nigerian military has been unlawfully detaining five men in her family, including several of her adult grandchildren, for more than four years.2 The violence in Northeast Nigeria is in its second decade, with a resurgence of Boko Haram attacks and military operations in 2020, especially in Borno State. The armed conflict has devastated individuals and communities across the region, with Boko Haram and the Nigerian military both responsible for war crimes and likely crimes against humanity. Older people’s experience of the conflict has been largely ignored in media, human rights, and humanitarian reporting. Yet they face distinct and often exacerbated risks from both sides of the conflict, linked also to the intersection of older age, gender, and disability. This report examines crimes under international law that Boko Haram and the Nigerian military have committed against older people or that have affected older people in particular ways. It also looks at the humanitarian response to the crisis in Northeast Nigeria, and how this response has neglected older women and men. The atrocities and wider neglect remain ongoing, especially across Borno State. The research for this report was undertaken between November 2019 and October 2020. In total, Amnesty International interviewed 62 older women and 71 older men from across Borno and north-eastern Adamawa States, including nine older women and 17 older men whom the Nigerian military detained illegally, often for several years, for alleged association with Boko Haram. Delegates also interviewed more than 100 other individuals, including prison staff at a facility where people, including older people, are held in the context of 1 Amnesty International interview, 8 December 2019. 2 Amnesty International telephone interview, August 2020. “MY HEART IS IN PAIN” OLDER PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCE OF CONFLICT, DISPLACEMENT, AND DETENTION IN NORTHEAST NIGERIA Amnesty International 5 the conflict; people involved in burying bodies from two detention sites in Maiduguri; hospital staff; witnesses to conflict-related deaths of older people; and staff from humanitarian organizations operating in the Northeast. The report builds on a decade of Amnesty International’s work on Northeast Nigeria. International law does not provide a global definition of what constitutes an “older person”. It is often defined as age 60 or older, including in a regional human rights treaty signed by Nigeria, but the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has promoted a context-specific approach, which Amnesty International agrees responds better to individual rights. For Northeast Nigeria, Amnesty International has included people in their 50s, also taking into account their self-identification as an “older person”. Older people, like individuals of all social identities, are not homogenous. Many older women and men in Northeast Nigeria provide for themselves and for others in their families; they farm, drive transport vehicles, run restaurants, and sell goods at market. Other older people have severe physical disabilities and, especially without access to assistive devices, are forced to rely on the assistance of others. In between, there is a spectrum of experience and needs. To respect and fulfil everyone’s individual rights, governments, donors, and humanitarian organizations need to identify and respond to the range of risks associated with older age, including those related to mobility, disability, nutrition, and certain health conditions. BOKO HARAM’S ATROCITIES In its attacks on towns and villages, Boko Haram has committed massacres and regularly abducted younger women and children. Its treatment of older women and men has varied; at times, fighters have killed or mutilated them, while in other attacks Boko Haram has left them alone, referencing their older age. While older people are at lower risk of being killed or seriously injured in any individual attack, they have made up a disproportionately large segment of the population living in areas that Boko Haram controls or contests. Some older people remain because they have reduced mobility and are unable to flee; other older people stay because of deep ties to their homes and villages, where they have lived for decades and provided for themselves and their families, generally through farming. The long-term contact that comes from living in Boko Haram-controlled areas brings unique risks of abuse, violence, and deprivation by Boko Haram and further risks of violations and stigmatisation by the Nigerian authorities. Boko Haram often murders those, including older men, who refuse to hand over a demanded portion of their harvest, livestock, and other property, including money. Fighters loot or “tax” people repeatedly, and the demands have become more extreme in recent years, especially by the Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau. Relinquishing a significant part of their harvest and livestock makes it difficult for older people to access adequate food and to survive. Many of them are already food insecure, as adult children and grandchildren who would have helped farm the family’s land had fled previously to government- controlled areas or were killed or abducted by Boko Haram. The food insecurity is further compounded by Boko Haram’s restrictions on women, including older women, working outside the home, reducing farm yields and other livelihood opportunities. A 60-year-old woman from a village in Marte LGA, Borno State, described: “We older [women] had our own field to grow crops… Boko Haram came and said we could not go to our field.” Several older women said fighters beat or whipped them if they tried to go to their farms. Thousands of older people, and likely tens of thousands, remain in Boko Haram-controlled areas and are unable to obtain adequate food. Many have died as a result. A 55-year-old man from a village in Bama LGA, Borno State, told Amnesty International: “Boko Haram came and asked what we’d farmed. They took our crops… My father died first, then my mother. Other elders also died, because of the starvation.” Certain older women in some areas under Boko Haram control are at particular risk of being murdered. Amnesty International documented several incidents, occurring as recently as 2019, in which fighters killed small groups of older women for being “possessed” or “witches”. The reasons that fighters have perceived older women to be “witches” are unclear, though several witnesses said at least some of the older women who were killed had mental health issues or cognitive impairments—potentially dementia.